The Blockchain-based Carbon Credit Ecosystem aims to bring more liquidity, transparency, accessibility, and standardization to voluntary carbon markets.

FDCTech, Inc. ("FDC" or the "Company," OTCQB: FDCT), a fintech company with a full suite of digital financial services solutions, today announced that Freedom Holdings, Inc. (OTC: FHLD) has selected the Company as its software development partner for developing Blockchain-based Carbon Credit Ecosystem for its subsidiary Carbon Zero Asset Management, Inc. ("Carbon-Zero").

Under the terms of the development agreement, the ecosystem will include the minting and burning protocols, a transparent mechanism for validating and distributing tokens backed by carbon credit as assets, a trading venue (makers/takers) for tokens, and tools to engage all stakeholders, including the carbon credit originators, offsetters, project verifiers, liquidity providers, non-government organizations (NGOs), concerned citizens, and governments. After properly validating the carbon credits, the proposed platform plans to transfer them to the Blockchain (e.g., Etherum) by converting them into digital tokens. The platform focuses on carbon credit generators or originators in the renewable space and voluntary schemes.

"FDC has a proven track record in developing regulated grade trading multi-asset platforms for entities across multi-jurisdictions. Our partnership with FDC will allow us to deliver and support complex integrated blockchain solutions quickly and cost-effectively. As announced recently, it is a significant step for us to bring the Carbon Credit ecosystem to the market and to become cash flow positive," Brian Kistler, Director, Freedom Holdings, Inc. (OTC: FHLD).

"We are delighted to partner with FHLD's initiative to bring programmable carbon market to smaller business and individuals who will have access to buy or sell the carbon credits," said Imran Firoz, Co-Founder, CFO, and NFT/Blockchain Team Leader. He added, "FDC's engagement to manage the development of the complete carbon credit blockchain ecosystem underscores our core software development capabilities. The project will further consolidate and add to our NFT platform initiative announced in December 2021."

New addition strengthens executive management team of Amsterdam based global network company

Expereo, the world’s leading provider of Global Internet, Cloud Access Optimization, SASE, and SD-WAN services, has today announced the appointment of Ben Elms as Chief Revenue Officer. Elms’ s overarching brief is to lead the Sales and go-to-market transformation across all channels and drive the expansion and adoption of Expereo’s services globally.

Elms brings more than 20 years of operational expertise and leadership in the telecommunications industry. Most recently, he served as the Group Director (CEO) at Vodafone Global Enterprise, a division of Vodafone Group Plc, a leading international wireless and wireline operator. Whilst there, he was responsible for leading global team managing relationships with multinational customers around the globe. During his tenure, the business outperformed the market with strong EBITDA performance and delivered significant improvements in customer and employee satisfaction whilst driving a program of operational efficiencies.

With his strong market experience, customer track record, and breadth of international expertise, he is a significant hire for the company as it continues its global growth and development.

Commenting on the appointment Irwin Fouwels, CEO at Expereo, said,

“Ben exhibits all the trademarks of a great leader, a true team player with super-strong commercial acumen and operational experience whilst demonstrating a relentless focus on the needs of the customer. Over the last few years, we see enterprises becoming even more cloud and internet-centric. Expereo has established a global leadership position in the highly attractive global cloud and software-defined networking market. I am very excited to have Ben join our company to continue our global go-to-market transformation. I am looking forward to a great partnership to take Expereo to further heights.”

On joining Expereo, Elms said,

''I am honored to be appointed as Expereo's first Chief Revenue Officer and to lead the next phase of growth. Expereo is on an exciting journey and has developed a unique market leadership position. My immediate focus will be on serving our customers as we continue to invest and expand our market position and in building operational excellence in our go-to-market. I look forward to speaking and meeting with employees, customers, and partners and working with Irwin and the team to take the business forward in a market that has a huge opportunity.”

Elms’ appointment comes after a sustained period of acquisition and expansion for Expereo, which will continue into 2022. With Elms added to its executive management team, the business will look to further consolidate its position as a leading player in the market - delivering simplified global networks while delighting customers with the seamless delivery of complementary services from one trusted supplier.

Sensibill, the only customer data platform designed specifically for the financial services industry, today shared highlights from 2021, including notable client wins, technology innovation, and strategic additions to the leadership team. 

Last year, the fintech continued to partner with clients of all sizes from community financial institutions like AbbyBank, Leaders Credit Union and SkyPoint Federal Credit Union to a top three U.S.-based bank. Sensibill also established relationships with leading technology companies like CAARY, FreeAgent, and FreshBooks, offering small businesses and accountants intuitive digital receipt and expense management tools. 

In addition to adding these new partnerships, the company expanded its suite of offerings to meet the growing needs of its customers and the broader market. Sensibill launched the Sensibill Platform, including Spend Manager and Spend Insights, to enable financial services companies to dive beneath the surface of customer data, down to the SKU-level, to better understand their customers and their timely financial needs and triggers. The company also expanded its leading extraction services to include Invoices, offering another rich source of customer data. Financial institutions and technology companies can use both the Invoice and Receipt Extraction API to gain deeper insights into customer spend and personalize experiences at scale. 

Sensibill launched its monthly Sensibill Barcode Report  last year, delivering deep and relevant insights into everyday consumer spending. The report leverages Sensibill’s extensive first party database of 220,000 merchants worldwide, including all the top 100 merchants in the U.S. and Canada, analyzing millions of receipts to uncover shifts in consumer spending habits and behaviors. Areas explored last year included consumer spending trends around travel, pets, holiday shopping and more. 

Sensibill’s success gained attention last year; the company won the Fintech Breakthrough Award for its development of the Sensibill Platform and was named one of Canada’s Top Growing Companies by The Globe and Mail for the second consecutive year. This recognition of the company’s impact and innovation helped attract talented new members of the leadership team, such as Craig Agulnek, Vice President of Product, who brings more than 20 years of experience. 

Corey Gross, Co-founder and CEO of Sensibill, said, “Our mission is to make financial wellness more attainable for all, and we have made significant strides in that direction through deepening partnerships, evolving our technology and expanding our client base. Our growing team constantly innovates, ultimately delivering greater transparency and accessibility into financial services. I expect our momentum to only accelerate this year, as we continue to bridge the gap between banking and buying and empower financial institutions and technology companies to treat each customer like a segment of one.”

Mr. Khan, Swiss Re's former Vice President of Insurance Linked Securities, brings a decade of industry experience to Vesttoo's growing ILP Program

Vesttoo, a leading global alternative risk transfer and investment platform, today announced the addition of Faraz Khan as an Insurance-linked Program (ILP) Product Specialist. Most recently serving as the Vice President of Insurance Linked Securities and Retro Business Management at Swiss Re Capital Markets Corp, Mr. Khan brings more than a decade of specialized experience in risk transfer to the capital markets. This hire follows a series of high-profile additions to Vesttoo's team, aimed at the strategic expansion of the company's marketplace and ILP program.

"We are thrilled to welcome Faraz to our team. He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the group," said Yaniv Bertele, CEO and Co-Founder of Vesttoo. "As a proven expert in capital markets and financial services, Faraz will spearhead the expansion of the ILP and additional investment vehicles." 

As an ILP Product Specialist, Mr. Khan will oversee the execution of transactions between insurers and investors. In addition, Mr. Khan will also assist with the asset raising process of the growing Vesttoo AUM and promoting Vesttoo's high frequency, low severity insurance-liability investments in the market.

"I am excited about the opportunity to work at Vesttoo and look forward to lending my experience in Insurance Linked Securities to navigate the unique challenges of my new role," said Vesttoo ILP Product Specialist Faraz Khan. "I look forward to working with the team to deliver results to our clients and industry partners."

Vesttoo's ILP Program, the company's insurance-liability investment portfolio, enables asset managers and pension schemes to earn long-term, sustainable alpha and attractive risk-adjusted returns (yield enhancement) by using existing assets as collateral in short term Life and P&C liability transactions.

 Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, announced today the appointment of Michael Callahan as its new Chief Marketing Officer. Callahan joins the team with extensive sales and marketing experience, serving in senior leadership roles at companies such as McAfee, HP, and Juniper, and most recently as the Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for Cofense.

As Acronis’ Chief Marketing Officer, Callahan will develop Acronis’ global brand position while increasing awareness of the Cyber Protect Cloud Platform. With COVID-19 accelerating digital transformation solutions and the migration to cloud and hybrid solutions, organizations need an effective security solution to stop the always-evolving threats. In addition, Callahan will help expand Acronis’ dedication to nurturing the next group of tech leaders with outreach programs around the world, especially in disadvantaged areas.

“Michael will build on the past success and push Acronis’ marketing team to even greater achievements,” said Patrick Pulvermueller, Chief Executive Officer at Acronis. “Michael brings more than 20 years of marketing leadership from some of the most well-known companies in the industry, and will be instrumental in solidifying Acronis’ position as a leader in endpoint security. His track record of driving impressive growth from the brands he developed excites us for what is to come under his leadership and expertise.”

Callahan is a metrics-driven marketing executive with extensive software-as-a-service (SaaS) security domain experience, serving in leadership roles at McAfee, HP, Firemon and Zimperium, where he effectively managed and led global teams. This is essential experience for this position as Acronis prides itself on being an internationally connected company with offices and employees around the globe, enabling the company to reach broader demographics and extend its grasp on the cyber protection markets.

Michael will continue to increase Acronis’ visibility across the cybersecurity space as a leader in cyber protection by focusing on the value of Acronis’ security solutions – such as Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud – designed specifically to be delivered as a service through service providers or enterprises protecting their organizations.

2021 was the most successful year in Acronis history, with the Acronis US cloud business growing 77% year-over-year and Acronis Cyber Protect delivering protection to over 750,000 businesses. Callahan will build on the success from 2021, including the $250 million investment from CVC Partners in May of last year to further enhance Acronis’ go-to-market initiatives by expanding its broad partner network of managed service providers (MSPs) to keep the momentum going in 2022.

“I’m very excited to be joining Acronis at a time when the value of our solutions is rapidly gaining traction in the market resulting in exceptionally fast growth that allows us to continue to invest in solutions to our customers’ problems. As the world moves towards a cloud-based digital ecosystem, it’s more important than ever to make sure cybersecurity solutions effectively stop threats so security leaders can protect their organizations,” said Callahan.

VERMEG, a specialized software house providing Banking, Capital Markets, Insurance and Digital solutions, and Cassini Systems, the leading provider of pre- and post-trade margin and collateral analytics for derivatives markets, have partnered to assist financial institutions in complying with Initial Margin (IM) requirements for uncleared over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, exchange-traded derivatives (futures and options) and prime brokerage. VERMEG has integrated Cassini’s margin analytics platform into its COLLINE collateral suite, giving its clients a powerful new tool for achieving cost efficiencies and helping to meet requirements of the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR).

As margin requirements have continued to increase across different business lines such as OTC derivatives, repo and securities lending, firms are under greater pressure to capture and attribute how margin impacts the front and back office alike. The VERMEG-Cassini partnership provides clients with a comprehensive workflow for managing intraday and end-of-day collateral requirements centrally within COLLINE’s standardized workflow inclusive of collateral optimization. The integration includes Cassini’s Standard Initial Margin Model (SIMM^TM) and Standard Approach calculation service at pre- and post-trade as well as margin methodologies of exchanges, central counterparties (CCPs) and prime brokers providing firms full transparency across all asset classes.

COLLINE is VERMEG’s integrated platform for cross-product collateral management supporting cleared and uncleared derivatives in all asset classes. Available as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), client-cloud, or on-premise offering, COLLINE’s modular architecture enables organizations of any size to select those features that best support their needs and scale as their business grows.

Cassini’s platform provides a full front-to-back solution covering margin, collateral and cost analytics for all classes of cleared and uncleared OTC derivatives as well as futures and options. It integrates into post-trade collateral management, treasury and risk systems – enabling clients to bring post-trade cost analytics into the pre-trade process. Many of the world’s leading asset management platforms rely on Cassini to facilitate leveraging analytics with little implementation overhead.

Liam Huxley, CEO of Cassini Systems, said: “As UMR reaches phase 6 and impacts the full range of buy-side firms, the need for a complete and flexible, front-to-back SIMM calculation, including the generation of sensitivities, is critical. The time for these firms to prepare is now. We’re delighted to work with VERMEG to provide Cassini’s comprehensive margin and SIMM calculation capabilities within the COLLINE workflows to help its clients meet their regulatory obligations in a cost-effective, seamless manner.”

Wassel DAMMAK, Head of Collateral Solutions Strategy, said: “We are excited to partner up with Cassini to help clients more efficiently manage their margin by leveraging analytics at different stages of the collateral workflows. By September 2022, many firms will be impacted globally by UMR, and Cassini is a natural partner to help those firms with a best-of-breed solution. The combination of COLLINE’s process automation with Cassini’s margin analytics will enable clients to leverage a powerful and robust One-Stop-Shop solution to manage complex business and regulatory requirements.”